The Samsung Galaxy Note5 is the first generation Note to come after Samsung parted with plastic as the main body material. The phablet adopts the overall design of the S6, but thanks to size and a few minor tweaks it's a Note through and through.
Samsung Galaxy Note5 in the flesh
Build quality is simply superb. The innards are sandwiched between two Gorilla Glass 4 panels and an aluminum frame runs along the sides, creating a truly premium look and feel, befitting a flagship. Fingerprints are inevitable though, and glass does shatter more easily than plastic, so perhaps you should invest in some sort of protection.
A major downside to the new design is that the battery is now sealed, which may put off those used to swapping batteries. You don't get microSD storage expansion and the IR emitter is gone as well - all changes familiar from the Galaxy S6.
The S-Pen has gotten a brand new design too - it now requires a click on the top to extract it from its silo. The click serves no other function though, and we feel like it should have.
The fingerprint sensor is the improved type from the S6, meaning it doesn't require swiping, but works just by tapping. It's fast and reliable, but isn't always on, you have to wake the screen up first. It does enable Samsung Pay, if you're in the regions where the service is supported.
Display
The Samsung Galaxy Note5 comes with a 5.7-inch AMOLED display, with a 1,440 x 2,560 pixels resolution. That comes down to 518ppi, far past the point where individual pixels can be seen with the naked eye.
An inherent property of the display technology is the infinite contrast - a result of black pixels not being lit up at all. Maximum brightness in regular surroundings is a little over average for AMOLED panels, but when you set it to Auto and expose the phone to bright light, it pushes it a lot higher, and easily into LCD territory.
Sunlight legibility benefits from the infinite contrast and low reflectivity, which coupled with the boost in brightness makes the Galaxy Note5 among the best performers in direct sunlight.
Color accuracy was a problem with initial AMOLED displays, but that's no longer the case. There are several settings, and Basic gets you possibly the most accurate color reproduction we've seen with a DeltaE of 1.1 (the threshold to call a display calibrated being 4.0). The other modes bring about minor drops in accuracy, to the benefit of more punchy output.
Battery life
The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 comes with a 3,000mAh battery capacity, a downgrade from the previous generation's 3,220mAh, and the fact that it's now non-removable is another red flag.
The reality is, however, that Samsung's latest phablet is a frugal spender and lasts nearly as long as the Note 4. Virtually identical numbers in 3G call times and web browsing, but 4 hours less in video playback mean the Note5 scores an 85h endurance rating in our test - 5 hours shorter than the model it replaces.
The endurance rating is an estimation of how long the phone would last if you use it for an hour each of calling, browsing and video playback a day. Such usage pattern may not be relevant to your own usage scenario, but we've established it so our battery results are comparable across devices. You can adjust the formula to better match your own usage pattern, by visiting our dedicated battery test results page.
The Note5 comes with fast charging capabilities - flat to 100% takes about 90 minutes, and there's also fast wireless charging tech built-in, which tops it up in 2 hours. The charging speed is almost enough to make up for not being able to pop in a fresh battery. When you're in a pinch, a two-tiered power-saving mode can help by turning off less essential features.
Audio
The speaker of the Note5 managed an Average score in our loudness test, but what it lacks in decibels, it makes up for in sound quality. It's still a single driver, though, when a lot of competitors have switched to front-facing stereo speakers.
Audio output through the 3.5mm jack is spotless, and very loud at that, when connected to an external amp. Forcing the Note5 to drive a pair of headphones hardly brings about any distortion, while stereo crosstalk takes only a minor hit, nearly unnoticeable.
Overall, it's an good showing from the latest Samsung phablet, excellent if you don't care as much about the loudspeaker.
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